Editorial July 14, 1917 Issue

What Is Our Desire?

Annie M. Knott

All Christian people are agreed that the Psalms are profoundly spiritual in their appeal to humanity, and that they get at the heart of things, "piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit," and discerning "the thoughts and intents of the heart," to quote from the epistle to the Hebrews. In the 112th psalm we are told that the man who delights greatly in God's commandments "shall not be afraid of evil tidings." As if to emphasize this thought, the psalmist goes on, "His heart is established, he shall not be afraid, until he see his desire upon his enemies." From the mortal standpoint this last statement would seem to imply that the righteous man was looking for the destruction of those who were believed to be his enemies, but in Christian Science we learn that there must abide in our desire no single element of hatred toward any one, for there can be no heaven where hatred dwells.

Again and again did Christ Jesus say, "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you;" and he also said that his teachings were not intended to set aside the law or the prophets, but rather to fulfil them. We do not question that Jesus brought to humanity a much higher sense of divine law than had ever before been attained, because he says that those of the olden time declared it would be right to love one's neighbor and hate one's enemy; but he at once lifted thought to the spiritual understanding of one God, one Mind, one infinite Father, whose children are all like Him who is good and always good. It therefore rests with us, if we would be true Christian Scientists, to look Jesus' high demand squarely in the face, and to seek the understanding of spiritual law which will enable us to demonstrate it through the illumination of our entire consciousness. Students of Christian Science are acquainted with Mrs. Eddy's illuminating article "Love Your Enemies," which begins on page 8 of "Miscellaneous Writings;" and on page 273 of the same book she writes, "God bless my enemies, as well as the better part of mankind, and gather all my students, in the bonds of love and perfectness, into one grand family of Christ's followers."

All Christian Scientists know that our desires are wrought into the very fiber of our human consciousness, and that they help to mold our destinies; indeed, our Leader tells us on page 1 of Science and Health that "desire is prayer." This being recognized, we cannot too often analyze our desires respecting all things, and see wherein they fail to come up to the Christ-standard, which is ever the standard of divine Love. George Macdonald tells in a most interesting way of a little lad who had been cruelly beaten by a brutal man, and how a young fellow who became acquainted with the circumstance spoke of the man in the very bitterest condemnation. His mother, a devout old woman, said to him, "Laddie, the Master told us we should love our enemies." To this her son replied that the man was not his enemy, and in this way he seemed to claim warrant for hating the offender; but the mother, much wiser than the youth, said, "He is the enemy of all the world, and of himsel' maist of all."

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